When Muir and Bishop meet at the railway station in Berlin, behind Muir and his wife the same woman (an extra) gets off the train twice.
When posing as a photojournalist, Tom Bishop carried two cameras: a Nikon and a Leica. While in photographing the doctor and an injured child in Lebanon, Tom's camera switches back and forth between his Leica and his Nikon, depending on the camera angle. From the front he is shown shooting with his Lecia (with external view finder), then in the same moment he is shown shooting with his Nikon (the silver body and empty hot shoe are visible), then again with his Leica.
When Muir first puts the Bishop files in the "burn bag", the top of the bag is crumpled. Moments later when his secretary Gladys is holding the bag, the top of the bag is neatly folded down.
In the last third of the movie, Harker says to his associate: "Muir worked with Duncan? Bishop worked for both." He says this as if he has just realized Muir and Duncan worked together, even though much earlier in the day, he had already raised his concerns to Folger about Duncan and Muir knowing each other.
The film takes place in 1991. The trade confirmation form that
Harker acquires shows Muir having liquidated his assets that day, and signed the form on "10/11/90". In a similar vein, the deed Muir receives from the C.I.A. director is dated "November 1990". Yet, a TV report refers to the "2nd Anniversary Berlin Wall" which supports the idea of the film taking place in 1991.
When Duncan is negotiating with Deng, he clearly tells Muir "Deng wants five-hundred-thousand YUAN for the power out in Su Chou." In 1991, this would have been about $95,500 U.S. dollars, so when Muir counter-offers and says "No way. Tell him $100K and I'll pay him in dollars," he is offering more than Deng asked for. The final price, $282,000USD, would have been approximately 1,500,000 yuan in 1991.
Operation "Dinner Out" takes place between 0700 and 0800 Eastern time. The assault on the prison takes place in the dark, aided by the power blackout, and by the time the team withdraws it has become daylight, indicating morning. 0700 in Washington would be 1900 in China (evening not morning).
The windows and walls at CIA headquarters are made to block radio transmissions; a cell-phone would not work inside.
When Nathan Muir is approaching the exit of the CIA building, close to give his badge on his final day, he has already tipped off the press and he thinks Bishop is fine. But he sees on the TV screen a new "live report from Hong Kong" where the reporter says that Bishop was already dead. It is about 3pm in Langley when Muir is leaving, which makes it impossible to be daylight in Hong Kong... yet the live report from Hong Kong is clearly in daylight.
China has enough experience with cholera that it would not require foreign aid personnel to help deal with it. In any event, it's highly implausible that a foreigner would be allowed into a Chinese prison without being adequately screened.
Muir is told that support for Operation Sideshow is "Commander Wiley's outfit in the Penghu Islands." There are no American military bases in Penghu, but judging from the scene of Commander Wiley on the phone, it's possible that his "outfit" is an aircraft carrier or other Navy vessel that is permitted to be in that area, the type of ship that can handle helicopters. All US military personnel were withdrawn from the Republic of China (including Penghu) after the US switched diplomatic recognition to mainland (Communist) China in 1979.
When Nathan needs money to rescue Tom Bishop, he calls his broker's (Mitch Alford) office in London to liquidate his accounts. The time is a little after 9 PM Washington time, which would be after 2 AM in London, but the office is open and a secretary answers the phone.
In car chase in the beginning of the movie, the two East German policemen speak with heavy Hungarian accents. Almost all of the other "Germans" speak with heavy English accents.
An RPG gunner is shown firing his weapon, but the rocket is obviously not loaded.
Early in the movie when Muir is opening his safe to remove his files on Bishop (and we first get to see his Bahamas brochure) the numbers on the safe, the combination buttons, are upside-down.
In Beirut, the men wait for the sheik at the head of a boat launch ramp, not at dock (pier). It is unlikely that the sheik could get out of that boat without getting soaked up to his knees (unless two guys carry him).
The Padres cap worn by Pitt during Beirut sequence, set in 1985, is navy blue. Navy did not replace the classic brown on Padres uniforms until 1991. However, this uniform design and color existed then as an unofficial uniform.
Duncan had food in a cardboard carton in his office in Hong Kong. While that could be how takeaway is present in Hong Kong, it is mainly a style of Chinese takeaway in the USAa.
In 1991, when the main story is set, Hong Kong was not part of China, but a British colony. It was transferred to China in 1997 as per the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.
While in Lebanon in 1985, Tom is wearing a style of San Diego Padres hat that did not exist until the early 1990s.
In 1985 in the Beirut café, the song heard in the background is "Noor Eshams" by the Lebanese singer Pascal Mashalani, the song was released for the first time in 2000.
In addition to putting a non-existent US embassy into Hong Kong, the movie also places one in Berlin. In the 1980s the US Embassy to West Germany was in Bonn, not West Berlin (which was not strictly speaking part of West Germany).
Late-1990s vintage computers and monitors appear in the scenes set in 1985 (the embassy in Beirut) and 1991 (the CIA headquarters).
Approximately in the middle of the movie, when the train is arriving at the platform in Berlin and Bishop gets off, we can hear the train bell. The bell is common for US railroads but is not used in Europe.
The motorcycle in the building bombing scene is clearly a 4 stroke motorcycle. You can know this by the throttle has two cables as on a 4 stroke (a 2 stroke only has one). Also you can see the exhaust header is small like a 4 strokes as compare to a 2 stroke which is very fat. When the motorcycle rider pulls out of the basement you can hear that it is a 4 stroke. It makes a 4 stroke sound - low, thumping sound.
But in the scenes on the road, and when doing the jump, they used a 2 stroke motor for the sound effect - high pitched, high revving, pinging sound.
The prison Su Cho seems to be a late addition. You can clearly see that Su Cho is dubbed over.
When Bishop chastises Muir on his views of Hadley's apparent neutrality, his mouth isn't moving.
When the rescue helicopters are landing on the prison roof, there is someone in the bottom right corner waving them in. It couldn't have been a guard because they were taken by surprise, and it couldn't have been one of their own, since none of the helicopters had landed yet. However, Bishop's friend Tran is his inside man in the prison, so Tran could have been on the roof, ready to guide the helicopters in as soon as the power was cut. When Muir is on the phone with Duncan, he says "He's got somebody on the inside. Check the roster for Sideshow." Duncan replies, "I'll be damned. Tran."
With about 8 minutes of running time left, when the prison rescue team makes good their escape, one helicopter rotates while ascending. This exposes the non-existent front and left side of a shell/portion of a helicopter being lifted and rotated. Nobody is in it.
The prison guards are speaking Cantonese instead of Mandarin, and the Chinese characters shown are traditional Chinese characters whereas in mainland China people use simplified Chinese characters.
There is no 'Kaarachi' in India - Karachi is, in fact, the largest metropolis in the south of Pakistan, not India.
The USA has no embassy in Hong Kong. Embassies only exist in
the capital of an independent nation, not in a colony. The U.S. has a consulate in Hong Kong. In the two live TV reports from Hong Kong the reporter correctly refers to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, even though he's standing in front of a building marked as "Embassy".
When Muir and Bishop sit on a rooftop after a failed rescue of an informant in Berlin, you can clearly see the Budapest skyline, not Berlin.
UK "zig-zag" road markings when Muir is driving to the Langley offices.
Muir told the CIA directors and others that he used CIA assets for personal benefits which was really a lie. Misusing federal funds or assets is still a crime, yet they didn't detain him for that.
When Harry Duncan counteroffers $282,000 to the Chinese General to shut off the power, he actually said $2,820,000 in Chinese instead.
When training to defeat a polygraph, the polygraph examiner asks Tom Bishop his favorite color. Polygraph examinations consist of "yes/no" or binary questions.
Once Operation Dinner Out is accomplished, the pilot of the helicopter identifies himself over the radio with a Blackhawk ID. This is in line with Muir requesting "02 MH-60K" from Commander Wiley. Yet, the helicopters in use were not Blackhawks, but Hueys.
Innumerable breaches of security procedure (failing to sign for classified documents, writing on pads of paper, using a non-GSA approved safe, not wearing ID tag, etc.)
Muir tells the doctor in Beiruit that his patient's death was from 'CO2 asphyxiation' i.e. carbon dioxide. From the pictures and the presumed accidental cause of the death this should probably be CO asphyxiation, i.e. carbon MONoxide.